Laurier football weekly update

The Friday School Day game was a great success with close to 5,000 fans in attendance. Most of this crowd was energetic, screaming elementary school kids. This made for a fun, loud and exciting environment.

The game was also thrilling and little too close for comfort. After building a 24-6 lead in the third quarter, Guelph came storming back and made it close. In the end, we are now 6-1 on the season after a 27-25 victory! VIDEO GAME RECAP

It was a day of some very big plays on offence. Running back Levondre Gordon got things started off with a 71 yard touchdown run right through the heart of the Guelph defence.

Later in the second quarter, another huge play; this time through the air as quarterback Michael Knevel found receiver Brendan McCracken for a 94 yard touchdown reception and run. Levondre led the way on offence and had 12 rushes for 193 yards. In total we had 243 rushing yards and balanced that off with 222 yards passing.

Defence
The sack and interception totals continue to increase for our defence. We found our way to the Guelph quarterback James Roberts four times for sacks and were able to intercept him three times. The sacks were by: Kwaku Boateng, Robbie Smith, Nakas Onyeka and Matt Williams.

Godfrey Onyeka got one of the interceptions and Malcolm Thompson got the other two. The first interception by Malcolm was highlight reel worthy as he dove and traveled a good 5 yards in the air before snagging the ball with one hand. Leading the way in tackles was Godfrey Onyeka (7.5), Matt Williams (10.5) and Nakas Onyeka (12).

Special Teams
In the kicking, game Nathan McLean averaged 34 yards per punt. Nathan was also 2/3 on his field goal attempts.

Kurleigh Gittens Jr. made the most of his two kickoff returns, averaging 44.5 yards per return giving the offence great field position.

The special teams’ play of the day was in the last minute of the game as Guelph attempted an onside kick. Fifth year running back Darian Waite snatched the ball from the air to give us the final procession. Amazingly, we have faced four onside kicks in the last two years and Darian has recovered all four of them.

Next up
This week, we head all the way west down the 401 to Windsor to take on the Lancers Saturday at 1pm. This is a huge game for us and, with a win, we can secure the 2nd seed in the OUA playoffs and earn a first round bye.

Here’s what is happening:Players of the Week Lunch
Join us this Thursday, October 20th at noon in the Hawks Nest to recap the Guelph game, honour the players of the game, hand out some great prizes and look ahead to Windsor this Saturday.